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Friday, Nov. 12

DANCE | Fall Concert 2004: Dances for an Autumn Evening

The Harvard Contemporary Dance Ensemble is a small, dedicated group of outstanding student dancers, alums, and professionals. Visiting choreographer Sean Curran has set the program for the Ensemble’s seasonal performance. Tickets available at the Harvard Box Office $10, $5 for students, seniors. 8 p.m., Saturday at 8 p.m. Rieman Center for the Performing Arts. (JET)

MUSIC | Cartoon Concert

Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny team up with Rossini this Friday night at the Harvard Pops’ concert of cartoon music. In the Pops’ tradition of creative, multimedia performance, the program includes actual cartoon screenings, live vocals, skits, and original pieces by conductor Allen Feinstein ’86 and Ben E. Green ‘06 (with cartoons). Experience the Pink Panther and other classics as never before. Tickets available at the Harvard Box Office $8, $5 for students, seniors. 8 p.m. Lowell Lecture Hall. (JET)

THEATER | The Physicists

The Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club takes on nuclear physics this fall with student director Mike Donohue’s production of this Cold War comedy by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. During a stay at a mental hospital three men who claim to be (and may in fact be) physicists Newton, Einstein, and Mobius, become involved in a web of murder, madness, and feigned identity—not to mention international espionage. Tickets available at the Harvard Box Office $12, $8 for students. Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Thursday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. Loeb Main Stage. (JET)

MUSIC | Venice vs. Rome

Roman composer Arcangelo Corelli and his contemporary, Antonio Vivaldi of Venice may have shared genius in common, but their musical personalities were as different as can be. The talented members of the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra, led by award-winning director Robert Mealy ’85, bring the works of these two masters to life for an evening of musical contrasts. Tickets $10, $5 for students, seniors. 8 p.m. Memorial Church. Tickets available at the Harvard Box Office. (JET)

MUSIC | Festival of Women’s Choruses

Radcliffe Choral Society, along with visiting women’s choral groups from Cornell, Mt. Holyoke, Vassar, and Wellesley will perform in a series of three concerts over two days. Joining the college groups are several area high school choirs and Boston-based professional women’s ensemble Tapestry. Tickets available at the Harvard Box Office $16, $8 for students. 8:15 p.m, Saturday at 8:15 p.m. Sanders Theater. (JET)

FILM | Silent Running

“Everything we learned about science, we learned from the movies.” That’s what the folks down at the Center for Astrophysics claim. Begin your education at the Center’s monthly sci-fi screening. This month in Silent Running (1972), one heroic botanist and three robots take the mission to rescue earth’s vegetation into their own hands in the face of government inaction. Free. Doors open at 6:45 p.m. for the 7:15 p.m. screening at the Center for Astrophysics. (JET)

MUSIC | Eyedea and Abilities

MC Eyedea and DJ Abilities have garnered praise for technical prowess as well as for their song-oriented approach to the mostly battle-driven scene of underground hip-hop. They perform at the Middle East in support of their new album E&A with Illogic, & DJ Przm and Los Nativos. 18+, $12 advance, $14 at door. Middle East downstairs. (EF)

Saturday, Nov. 13

MUSIC | Hot Water Music

Post-hardcore mainstays Hot Water Music play an afternoon show downstairs at the Middle East for all you scene kids with free afternoons. Also on the bill are Alexisonfire, Planes Mistaken for Stars and Moments in Grace. All ages. $12. 1 p.m. doors open. Middle East downstairs. (EF)

MUSIC | Scissorfight

New Hampshire veteran metalheads Scissorfight cook up something evil at the Middle East with like-minded Antler and the Benders. 8 p.m. doors open, 18+. $10 advance, $12 at door. Middle East downstairs. (EF)

Sunday, Nov. 14

MUSIC | Bach: Magnificat, Haydn: Lord Nelson Mass

One of Massachusetts’ premiere choral institutions performs some of the greatest music ever written this weekend in Sanders. The Masterworks Chorale, conducted by Allen Lannom, has performed with the likes of the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Boston Ballet. Now they present “Back: Magnificat, Haydn: Lord Nelson Mass.” Reserved seating, tickets range from $18-$39. Or try student rush and pay $5 cash at the door, but get there 1 hour early. 3 p.m. Sanders Theatre. (ECMV)MUSIC | Brahms, Dvorak, Stravinsky Rite of Spring

Experience soothing Brahms and Dvorak side by side with jolting Stravinsky in the Boston Chamber Music Society’s classical music mix. The show will include Brahms’ “Two Songs for Mezzo Soprano, Viola and Piano, Op. 91;” Dvorak’s “Piano Quartet in D major, Op. 23;” and Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.” Non-student tickets range from $17-$46; student tickets, $8. For $5 rush tickets, arrive an hour early. 7:30 p.m. Sanders Theatre. (ECMV)

MUSIC | Hot Snakes

Swami Records’ rawk and roll from the same guys that brought you Drive Like

Jehu. Hear songs from their most recent, and quite nice, release Audit in Progress. With Detroit garage rockers the Demolition Dollrods and Dan Sartain. 18+. $13 advance; $15 at door. Downstairs at the Middle East. (EF)

BOOKS | Timothy Garton Ash

The acclaimed author discusses his new book Free World: America, Europe, and the Surprising Future of the West. Hear him speak on the post-Cold War geopolitical, political and existential problem. Sponsored by the Harvard Book Store. 6:30 p.m. Free. Starr Auditorium in the Belfer Building of the Kennedy School. (EF)

Tuesday, Nov. 16

BOOKS | The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004

Contributors and generally smart guys Steven Pinker, Atul Gawande, Chet Raymo, Daniel C. Dennett and Mike O’Connor will read and discuss selections from the ever interesting The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004. Free tickets can be picked up at the Harvard Book Store. 6:30 p.m. First Parish Church. (EF)

Wednesday, Nov. 17

MUSIC | A Concert of Sacred and Secular Vocal Music From Around 1500

See how your modern musical tastes react to popular works from 500 years ago. Dutch-Flemish ensemble Capella Pratensis performs “A Concert of Sacred and Secular Vocal Music From Around 1500.” 8 p.m. Get your free pass at the box office. Paine Hall. (ECMV)

BOOKS | Widener: Biography of a Library

Library expert Mr. Matthew Battles will discuss his hefty and comprehensive

new book Widener: Biography of a Library. Come hear tales of weal, woe and books. Free. 6:30 p.m. Harvard Book Store. (EF)

Thursday, Nov. 18

MUSIC | Boston Philharmonic Orchestra: Ravel, Gershwin, Stravinsky

Come enjoy the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra’s renditions of Ravel’s “La Valse,” Gershwin’s “Concerto in F,” and Stravinsky’s “Petrushka.” Benjamin Zander conducts; Kevin Cole is on the piano. 7:30 p.m. Tickets from $15-$59, with $4 off for students and seniors and a discount for MTA members. For student rush, go 90 minutes early and bring $8 cash. Sanders Theater. (ECMV)

MULTIMEDIA | Pierre Huyghe’s “Huyghe and Corbusier: Harvard Project”

Take your understanding of the Carpenter Center to a whole new level with a multimedia extravaganza involving architecture, film and, of course, “puppet opera.” The Carpenter Center is the only building in North America designed by Le Corbusier. “Huyghe + Corbusier: Harvard Project,” designed by Pierre Huyghe, explores the building’s design history. Custom-crafted marionettes take the stage in the temporary architectural extension; meanwhile, a Huyghe film based on the puppet opera will be screened in the Sert Gallery. Free and open to the public; opening reception with the artist, 6-8 p.m. at the Carpenter Center. (ECMV)

BOOKS | The Woman Who Pretended to Be Who She Was

Expert on Hinduism and mythology Wendy Doniger comments on her new book The Woman Who Pretended to Be Who She Was: Myths of Self-Imitation. Join her for a stimulating discussion on the cross-cultural theme of self-impersonation. Sponsored by the Harvard Book Store. Free. 4:30 p.m. Askwith Lecture Hall in Longfellow Hall. (EF)

Ongoing

VISUALS | Feed: Artists + Digital Influence

Here digital technology and art converge as multi-disciplinary artists exhibit their work that is cutting-edge in more ways than one. Through Dec. 11. Call (617) 879-7333 for more information. Massachusetts College of Art, 621 Huntington Ave. (VMA)

FILM | Lions of the Kalahari

Escape to the deserts of Botswana and for a moment enter into the jungle world of the Kalahari lion. Brought to you very realistically thanks to the 180-degree dome film screen at the Museum of Science. Daily through Feb. 17. Science Park. (VMA)

THEATER | The Rocky Horror Show

In case you just can’t do the “Time Warp” at the Saturday night performances at the Harvard Square Loew’s, try The Footlight Club’s live version of The Rocky Horror Show. Leave your water pistols and rice at home: the producers want to keep the historical Eliot Hall in good condition. Tickets $21. 8 p.m. Running through Nov. 13. Call (617) 524-3200 for more info. Eliot Hall, 7A Eliot Street, Jamaica Plain. (KMM)

VISUALS | X

Aesthetic architecture has a social conscience in the Graduate School of Design (GSD) exhibit, “Alejandro Aravena: X.” The design showcases 10 projects by Chilean architect and visiting GSD Prof Alejandro Aravena. One bonus for anyone interested in community development: the display includes entries for the ELEMENTAL competition to design low cost housing projects for Chilean communities. Through Nov. 17. Gund Hall Gallery, 48 Quincy St. (ECMV)

ART | Fabulous Histories: Indigenous

Anomalies in American Art. This exhibit curated by VES graduates explores the relationships between self-taught, marginal, and mainstream art practice, tackling questions of authenticity and legitimacy in the art world. The show is a rare chance to see masterworks by nine important artists, both mainstream and lesser known. Admission free. Monday-Saturday 9 a.m.-11:30 p.m., Sunday noon-11:30 p.m. Through Nov. 19. Carpenter Center. (JET)

VISUALS | Dependent Objects

The Busch-Reisinger Museum presents an exhibition of sculpture by artists who were ambivalent toward the media. “Dependent Objects” presents the works of German artists beginning in the 1960’s including works by Franz Erhard Walther, Hans Haacke, Charlotte Posenenske and Gerhard Richter. Through Jan 2. The Busch-Reisinger at the Fogg Museum. (JSG)

VISUALS | To Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty

The Winthrop collection has traveled around the world and is back at the Fogg in the exhibit “To Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop.” The exhibition features painting and sculpture by such artists as Blake, Degas, Gericault, Ingret, Monet, Pissaro and Renoir. Fogg Museum. (JSG)

Films

Alfie

Alfie presents a glimpse of the dizzyingly fast-paced social life of a serial womanizer. Jude Law has the clothes, the car, and the looks to get any girl—and he does, with an endless string of paramours ranging wildly from an aging cosmetics empress (Susan Sarandon) to a flighty, semi-psychotic teenager. But the car is borrowed, the suits were on sale, and beneath Law’s charming smirk is a calculating mind. Alfie has no warmth or romanticism, despite his British charm. The movie captures his gradual comprehension of that emptiness surprisingly well. His self-discovery is aided by the stylistic device of Alfie’s narration directly to the audience; in his self-absorption, Alfie considers his life to be the constant focus of a camera. But his ostentatious posing for the camera also reveals Alfie as childish and even innocent—he doesn’t think his actions affect anyone. Jude Law’s acting, on the other hand, has just the right touch of joviality and supreme confidence with which Alfie begins the movie. The film is utterly realistic in demonstrating that understanding mistakes is not always enough to rectify them. (MAB)

Around the Bend

The redemption of a long-estranged parent is hardly a novel plot in contemporary cinema; it has congealed to the point where every hug, tear and clumsy montage seem carefully choreographed. Refreshingly, Around the Bend, reveals an organic push and pull that approaches the mostly shapeless narrative of real relationships that is only reinforced by the subtle performances of screen legends Christopher Walken and Sir Michael Caine. (WBP)

The Forgotten

The Forgotten has the makings of an intelligent paranoid thriller, but I found nothing spectacular or terrifying in it, only government agents scrambling to hide a conspiracy and scrambled plot lines trying to hide a lack of creativity, despite the guarantee a seemingly competent cast should offer. Julianne Moore’s Telly Paretta is a likeable everywoman. Her therapist (Gary Sinise), is appropriately authoritar ian, while her husband (ER’s Anthony Edwards) appears to be phoning in his support from another planet. They are too hampered by the product they’ve been asked to deliver to hope to redeem it. (ABS)

Friday Night Lights

The clichéd line is never uttered, but without listening very carefully, you can hear its echo throughout Friday Night Lights: “In Odessa, football is a way of life.” And, as is quickly shown, the only way of life for residents of this small Texas town, where state champions become legends and those who fall short become mere pariahs rejected even within their own families. Though American society worships successful professional athletes, the cult following earned by 17-year old high school seniors is for the most part less widespread. Director and co-writer Peter Berg rightly devotes more time to te Panthers’ trials in their daily lives—how they survive in the face of such intense scrutiny—than their gridiron exploits to underscore that this isn’t just a game but a profession. (TJM)

The Grudge

The camera stumbles upon a door, it bursts open, the hand of the dying woman drops, a guttural boom blasts from the sub, and that four-dollar bucket of flat Diet Coke resting patiently at your side becomes fizzy and fresh on your lap as you jump—hard. It’s these moments—when some random horrific element comes from nowhere—that make the first act of The Grudge, Hollywood’s latest attempt at remaking a foreign blockbuster, extremely enjoyable. Yet tension gives way to torpor as the first act crawls to a close: the slow reserved pace that initially generates bloodcurdling moments soon begins to retard the motion of the film. Even the supposed surprise ending becomes an “Oh, okay” moment instead of a “Wow, no way, that’s his father?” one. The movie, then, becomes a woeful drudge of cinematic excess: it’s cool for the sake of cool. (BJ)

I Heart Huckabees

Albert is unhappy and he isn’t sure why. Sadly, we never care. The root of Albert’s malaise, I think, is that he has sold out. He has entered into a partnership with Huckabees, a chain of K-Mart-like stores, to throw some muscle behind his coalition to save a local wetland. Russell’s sly appropriation of American corporate-speak provide the best moments in the Huckabees script: therapy would be unbecoming for a corporate executive, so Brad rationalizes his sessions with “existential therapists” by insisting they are “pro-active and action-oriented.” While all of the characters in Huckabees seem primed to arc from ironic distance to grand, tragic catharsis, Jude Law alone provides the emotional proximity the film coaxes you into longing for and then so cruelly denies. (DBR)

The Incredibles

Pixar, the ingenious powerhouses of animation that brought the world personified toys, monsters and phosphorescent fish, has taken on a PG-rated action adventure for its latest premise: the story of an average superhero family.In his glory days, Bob Parr (Craig T. Nelson) was known to the world as Mr. Incredible, a superhero capable of foiling a bank robbery, stopping a runaway locomotive and coaxing a kitten down from a tree all on the way to his wedding. Segue to fifteen years later and Mr. Incredible and his wife Helen, formerly known as Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), and their three children are attempting to live a normal suburban life under the Witness Protection Program. Bob juggles a potbelly and a mind-numbing job as an insurance claims specialist while longing for the old days; Helen is not willing to give up the peaceful life they have earned. Everything changes when Bob receives a communiqué calling for Mr. Incredible’s help in a top-secret mission on a mysterious island. The mission eventually pulls the entire Incredibles family into a battle to save the world from their nemesis, Syndrome (Jason Lee). Writer-director Brad Bird (Iron Giant, The Simpsons), who serves triple duty as the voice of the temperamental superhero fashion designer Edna Mode, has created a film that skillfully blends the excitement of a superhero movie with a carefully-measured dose of family film sensitivity. (JYZ)

The Motorcycle Diaries

The Guevara characterized in Walter Salles’ seductive new film The Motorcycle Diaries is a far cry from the iconic figure, sporting beard and beret, found in so many dorm rooms and poetry lounges. This is Ernesto Guevaa de la Serna (Gael García Bernal) in his mid-20s, before he was Che. The film picks up Guevara’s life in 1951 as he embarks with his compatriot, Alberto Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna) on his travels—powered, initially, by the namesake motorcycle, of course—bound for the southern tip of South America. He is a far more accessible figure, and his journey radiates a certain lost-soul aura to which even a hardened capitalist could relate. (ZMS)

Primer

Primer, the directorial debut of Shane Carruth, lacks any narrative thread, but essentially is a story about four broke, thirtysomething engineers who create a mysterious box in their garage that defies scientific rationality and seems to give them inexplicable control over life. Two members of the group, Aaron (Shane Carruth) and Abe (David Sullivan), decide to probe what potential their creation might have: They explore the commercial possibilities of time-travel for a few hours each day, encounter dreadful mishaps in a Scooby Doo-esque fashion and finally, things end quite badly, with the audience, plot and characters in a state of sheer confusion. If Carruth proves anything with his film, it is that sci-fi movies dealing with the tenuous nature of the time-continuum need Christopher Lloyd. (KMM)

Ray

There is something like ashy molasses in Ray Charles’ voice: dripping syrupy sweet with southern charm yet charged with gritty, unhewn candor, it resonates with a sense of immediacy and emotional clarity that is nothing short of divine. And yet somehow, even after seventeen tedious years of development, Ray, based on Charles’ life, does not muster any semblance of the splendor within his music. The film lacks emotional attachment on any level and fails in every way as a meaningful addition to his life and legacy. With a mix of deceitful, manipulative Hollywood story telling techniques masquerading as artistic strokes and tacky, unfocused, pop-filmmaking, director Taylor Hackford, manages to turn an amazing story of sheer will triumphing over adversity into a two-and-a-half hour mess that will damage Charles’ memory, even with Jamie Foxx’s almost perfect portrayal of Ray Charles. (BJ)

Shall We Dance?

Director Peter Chelsom’s new movie, Shall We Dance?, has a dance card full of big-name actors but leaves its audience with little except bruised toes. A remake of Japanese director Masayuki Suo’s 1996 film of the same title—from which it imports most scenes and some dialogue—the movie ultimately seems as bungling on its feet as many of the characters it portrays. John Clark (Richard Gere) wants to ballroom dance. In Suo’s Japanese film this is understandably mortifying because, as a voiceover tells us at the outset, “In a country where married couples don’t go out arm in arm…the idea that a husband and wife should embrace and dance in front of others is beyond embarrassing.” Chelsom never explains what makes ballroom dance equally taboo in 21st century Chicago. He tries to plug this plot hole subliminally instead by making Miss Mitzi’s look a lot like a brothel, but it’s hard to salvage a bungled plot with neon lighting and sweaty-palmed patrons. (NJH)

Sideways

Writer-director Alexander Payne and co-writer Jim Taylor seemed on a winning streak with Election and About Schmidt: both were inventive and quirky, two qualities their newest collaboration, Sideways, unfortunately lacks. The film follows Miles (Paul Giamatti), a burned-out teacher and struggling novelist, and his best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church) on a road trip through California’s wine country organized to make the most of Jack’s last days of bachelorhood. The trip in Miles’ mind is about tasting great wines and in Jack’s is about getting laid as much as possible before marriage shuts him down. Despite their somewhat incredible friendship—they have completely opposing interests, outlooks and goals—the acting is exceptional and Giamatti and Church exude a chemistry that makes their friendship believable and oddly charming. But sadly, the movie is ultimately worthwhile only for its fine performances. Sideways’s structure is painfully episodic, never allowing audiences to become fully engrossed in its obnoxious characters.

Stage Beauty

The film suffers from a haphazard and disorganized structure; the shaky cinematography is positively migraine-inducing; and the “mood” lighting simply worked to obscure any attempt to discern what was happening. Stage Beauty opens with Maria (Claire Danes) standing wistfully in the wings while watching a performance of Othello’s Desdemona by her employer, London’s “leading lady” Ned Kynston (Billy Crudup). She mouths his lines with practised passion, for despite a ban on female actresses in public theater, Maria—surprise, surprise—harbors ardent aspirations for thespian glory of her own. The filmmakers missed a golden opportunity to exploit the subtle human side of a fascinating historical moment, instead creating an unconvincing hodgepodge of hackneyed aphorisms. (JHR)

Team America: World Police

The new Trey Parker and Matt Stone production Team America: World Police is a delirious send-up of the international save-the-world action genre spoofing every movie from the Star Wars trilogy to Knightrider to The Matrix and unsympathetically mocks every public figure from Michael Moore to Kim Jong-Il to, curiously enough, Matt Damon. And they do it with puppets. Unlike most politically-motivated comedies these days, there’s no clear slant towards either the left or the right. Team America is a throwback to the kind of movie that casts the establishment as the good guy and everyone who goes against them are either evil or woefully misinformed. While, to many, such a theme may seem ironic, what makes this movie so pertinent and vital is the fact that this unthinking good-vs.-evil mentality may be more widespread than we’d like to believe. On the other hand, this movie also tells me that beating the hell out of puppets is funny. (SNJ)

Vera Drake

An intimate film about the lives of a small cast of characters, this simple masterpiece by director Mike Leigh manages to be at once philosophically expansive and physically claustrophobic. Personalities too large for their surroundings compound the effect of poverty on spaciousness—there is merely too little room to accommodate everyone, their needs for privacy and their individual desires. Imelda Staunton gives a tight performance as the title character, a mid-century London mother who tests light bulbs in a factory and keeps house for the wealthy to provide for her children and aged mother. Somehow, she still finds the time to invite neighbors over to her apartment for tea and a matchmaking session. In her “spare” time, she performs simple abortions to “help out young girls,” as she conceives of it, in a British cultural climate in which doing so is almost unthinkably wrong. The pendulous arm of justice, too, presses down on Vera Drake. By the end of the film, it is not just women as a social category who must live without freedom but Vera herself, forced to exchange liberty for captivity and the ultimate sort of crowdedness—that of a prison. (ABM)

Woman, Thou Art Loosed

Woman Thou Art Loosed is a misnomer. Titling this film Movie Thou Art Disturbing, Depressing, Not Very Uplifting Nor Powerful At All! would be far more appropriate. The main character, Michelle, played by Kimberly Elise, is raped by her mother’s boyfriend at the age of twelve, and cannot reconcile her painful past with her spiritual quest for God. To Elise’s credit, she does as much as much as possible with such a weak script. On her time in jail: “I was getting raped in the shower and a woman was pulling my leg, just like I’m pulling yours.” This movie should not be released in theatres. It should be overnight Fed-Ex’d to Lifetime, where they can show it over and over again in their next “Girl Has a Troubled Childhood, and Her Life Is Filled with Rape, Drugs, Prostitution and Murder Movie Marathon.” (TBB)

—Happening was compiled by Vinita M. Alexander, M.A. Brazelton, Theodore B. Bressman, Eric Fritz, Julie S. Greenberg, May Habib, Nathan J. Heller, Steven N. Jacobs, Bryant Jones, Timothy J. McGinn, Kristina M. Moore, Will B. Payne, Geneva Robertson-Dworet, David B. Rochelson, J. Hale Russell, Zachary M. Seward, Julia E. Twarog, Emer C.M. Vaughn, Julie Y. Zhou.